Are You Being Served?

"I cannot change the world, but I can change a small part of it."

-Kay Florentino

As we approach the 16th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, a day which we now recognize as Patriot's Day and honor with a national day of service, I think it is a great time to write about the importance of modeling service for our students and to roll out plans for getting our students out in the community to serve.

Times of national tragedy or natural disaster terrible and heartbreaking, but they also give us a glimpse at what the communities that make up our country are really capable of. When we turn on the TV and see images of people simply helping people, regardless of skin color, religion, political affiliation, or any host of a dozen other identifiers we are lead to believe make us different, it is hard to imagine that any of the vitriol we see and hear on the news and on social media could exist in such a time and place. There is something about helping people in need that brings out the best in humanity. When we focus on doing for others, somehow all of the negativity that surrounds just kind of melts away. Folks in Houston are still working around the clock to restore some semblence of normalcy to their lives while others in Florida are preparing for the worst. I have no doubt that when Irma hits Florida, no matter the scale of devestation ends up being, people will help people, and we will all feel good about that.

I believe that our students and our community can have that same effect without the need for a natural disaster. We need to teach our students that we do not have to wait for human tragedy to strike in order to pitch in and help make the world around us a better place. Let's show them that we can get so much further if we work together to get ahead instead of waiting until we are working together to catch back up. 

For this reason, we will be implementing two days of service this year. The first will be on October 19th. The second day will be in the Spring. We are still finalizing plans on what students will be doing, but we are committing to doing something.

The point is that we can show our community that we care about them and appreciate their support for all that we do here. A good friend and colleague of mine says he lives by this simple motto: Love Life, Clean House, Help Others". If we can do that more often than not, we are going to pretty happy with the result.